Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz and a Doodle
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Cameron Diaz's return, Adam McKay doubles down, Ewan McGregor's mustache, the unabashed insanity of The People's Joker, and a doodle.
Let’s go!
CAMERON DIAZ'S RETURN
Cameron Diaz hasn’t acted in a decade.
But this year, she will star in Netflix’s Back In Action with co-star Jamie Foxx. She is also in talks to star with Keanu Reeves in the Jonah Hill-directed Outcome.
While there is no word on who Diaz would play in Outcome, Back In Action centers on the splashy return of a retiree.
Diaz first burst onto the scene as the electric yet sensitive love interest in the Jim Carrey classic The Mask (iconic entrance scene). Diaz’s character, which could easily have fallen victim to overly simplified 90s typecasting, is surprisingly layered.
But it was her neurotic, frumpy performance as Lotte in Being John Malkovich (1999) that demonstrated immense range.
Sharon Waxman, the author of Rebels on the Backlot, explained how director Spike Jonze helped her realize this transformation:
“Jonze finally asked Diaz not to be Diaz. He kept asking her to subtract elements of her personality; not to pucker her lips, not to perch on her hips—things she leaned on to emphasize her sexuality. ‘We started pushing the character,’ said Jonze. And Diaz was willing. Jonze found that he could see a common thread between Lotte and Diaz. ‘What Cameron is that Lotte is is this very caring person that's very open with herself emotionally. She's not driven by her neuroses as much as she's driven by wanting to make sure everyone’s happy.’”
Diaz's transformation for the role was so profound (still) that she often went unrecognized by the production team and even the studio chief.
But after fifteen years of taking on a range of projects, from Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002) to Bad Teacher (2011) to Annie (2014), she quit acting.
Speaking with Kevin Hart in 2021, she explained the decision:
“When you do something at a really high level for a long period of time, when you’re the person that’s sort of delivering on this one thing, everything around, all parts of you that isn’t that, has to sort of be handed off to other people. Just, the management of me as a human being… Cameron Diaz is a machine. But for my personal, spiritual self, I was realizing that one part of me that functioned at a high level wasn’t enough.”
After a decade-long hiatus, Cameron Diaz, presumably centered, returns to the big screen. And we’re lucky to have her back.
She flourishes through reinvention.
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